Every now and then the RapReviews staff will
debate the merits of what belongs in the Back to the Lab
category. Though the ostensible purpose of its existence is to look back at
albums that either (A.) got released before the site was founded or (B.) got
overlooked due to the overwhelming flood of hip-hop releases, it also serves
as a calendar line in the sand that generally extends 12-18 months back from
the current date of a review's publication. We can't easily lump a review
of something on the shelf for a year in with new albums that just hit retail,
unless the album has somehow been updated or re-released in a new format.
This happens occasionally with mixtapes, especially if they get an "official" release.

That's not going to happen with the "Ringside EP." First and foremost the
self-confessed pro wrestling fan DZA
goes all out with the WWE (or WWE owned) samples on this five track DatPiff
download. It's possible that the up-and-coming rapper could afford to pay
the sample clearance fees - but would you really put down that kind of cheddar
for just eleven minutes of music? That's the second reason this will never see
an official release - it's a clear bit of time sensitive fandom that was
intended to drop the same day as WrestleMania 29, though according to DP's own records it came out a day later.
The real nail in the coffin of an official release (and this pun is definitely
intended) is the opening track "The Streak."

"Straight up
Hear the whistles when I pass by
Gave one of you niggaz a +Tombstone+
In case you ready for your +Last Ride+
You tried to get cure and it backfired
Ain't that right?
Your b#%!# ain't give you no ackrite
Who you think she curbed you for last night?"

DZA's song full of puns for the Dead Man of pro wrestling is fun to listen to
if you follow the squared circle's soap opera, but when DZA says "they won't end
my streak" he didn't and COULDN'T have known that Brock Lesnar would in
fact end it at WrestleMania 30 this year (even the bookies got that one wrong).
For that reason alone if no other this review became "Back to the Lab" by default,
because the album is forever dated by the perception Undertaker couldn't and
wouldn't ever be beaten. It's also a little chilling to hear samples of the late
Paul Bearer at the end of the track - a fitting tribute to be sure - but Bearer
had already passed away BEFORE WrestleMania took place. That had to
give DZA and 183rd pause for thought before finalizing the track.

In some respects though the entire album is dated, and more than just by the
year and change since CM Punk wrestled Big Evil. Every song is virtually a
throwback to the 90's, to an era when WWF and WCW battled for ratings supremacy,
a battle which Undertaker was very much a part of. "Y2Kushedgod" samples the
speech Chris Jericho gave when jumped ship from Ted Turner to Vince McMahon.
"Wolf Pack" refers to the nWo faction that split off to feud with the rest of
the nWo in red and black colors. Coincidentally which side of the feud Scott
Hall was on was integral to WCW storylines in mid-1998, and the very next
track samples both his Razor Ramon theme music and a "machismo" promo he cut
in WWF before he jumped ship to WCW.

Even if you're not a wrestling fan it should be fairly apparent that during
the 1990's, big money was floating around between the rival TV shows on rival
networks, and wrestlers had plenty of incentive to follow the money to whoever
could make the best offer - and that makes "Hollywood Smoke Hogan" a fitting
note to end both the album and review on. Even though Hogan originally came to
WCW hoping to continue his all-American red and yellow bandana good guy act
from WWF, Southern audiences quickly turned on his shtick, and in a stroke of
genius (no kidding) WCW turned him heel and paired him with Hall and Nash to
create a stable that was "too sweet." The Wolfpac split shows it eventually
grew too big for its own good, as it literally hampered the ability of the
writers to come up with anything to do - they "beat" their in-house WCW rivals
at every turn. All of this makes for a fun trip down nostalgia lane, the kind
you can enjoy on WWE Network (for an undisclosed monthly sum), but if you're not the
kind of wrestling head that Smoke DZA or I are this all goes OVER your head
like his perpetual clouds of kush smoke. It's an insular time locked album
that while fun for me is too short and too narrow to make a bigger impact.